


Octokitten Pressure

by SailorMinerva



Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Brief Mentions of Doc. Carmilla, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Mechs typical shenanigans, Octokittens - Freeform, VERY subtle mentions of cannibalism, no beta we die like true warriors, origin story?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:27:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23547640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorMinerva/pseuds/SailorMinerva
Summary: A story about Jonny, Tim, and how the octokittens came to be. With special guest appearances!
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29
Collections: Mechs Fic Exchange





	Octokitten Pressure

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sinna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinna/gifts).



> Mechs Fic Exchange Request:  
> A story about how the Octokittens came to be and/or how the crew first reacted to discovering them
> 
> I tried to pepper a couple of little easter eggs in there, so have fun finding them!

The Universe being the vast place that it is, you encounter many mad scientists. It is quite far from an original title. Long before Dr. Pilchard, Raphaella La Cognizi, or even Doc Carmilla stepped foot on the Aurora, a Cyberian scientist (one that could have quite honestly have earned the additional title of ‘mad’) sought to create a fearsome creature. One that was intelligent, curious, strong, discrete, and (of course) completely loyal. Something to strike fear into Cyberia’s enemies. Depending on which Mech you ask they either created a worthy companion (Tim, Brian, Ashes, Nastya, Ivy, Marius, or the Toy Soldier), the prefect test subject (Raphaella), or a pest that has now infested the entire damn ship (Jonny). Many of those in the ‘worthy companion’ category would likely elaborate on this to mean ‘a worthy companion in chaos’. Actually, anyone that was there to witness the first appearance of the Octokittens might think of this to be true. 

This happened not long after Doc Carmilla got thrown out of the airlock, but before Marius and Raphaella came into the picture. Which is exactly why Jonny was in this situation, hunting down information on Tim’s eyes since someone (Jonny, again) thought it would be funny to hold target practice in Tim’s quarters while he was still asleep. In the ensuing firefight, the bottle holding the last of the solution that Tim uses to clean his eyes (The Mechanisms brand of fun is significantly less fun if you can’t see it happening) got destroyed and now more needed to be made. Now Jonny wanted to be back inside that lab about as much as the next immortal space pirate (which is to say, not at all) but Ashes decided to play the older sibling card with a very persuasive argument. They told him that his options were either to spend the remainder of the trip to their next concert strapped to the back of the Aurora or to go into the lab to get the formula for the solution. Now, Jonny is not usually one to care much about the fleshy part of his being that got him around from place to place, but he at the very least knew that the constant freezing and re-freezing of his vocal cords would seriously fuck them up for a little bit and that meant that Tim was gonna have to sing in his place. Jonny was not okay with this.

Not at all.

Not again.

This is how Jonny found himself, gun in hand, within the depths of Carmilla’s Lab. Despite how proud she was of her little immortality cheat code; she was also very protective of its secrets. This meant that all lab reports pertaining to The Mechanisms were kept in some of the deepest parts of her lab. The reports themselves were not kept in a highly secured container, just a standard filing cabinet. However, this was still Carmilla’s Lab. She had her own special brand of securing things. 

By the time Jonny reached the filing cabinet in question, he was covered in blood and viscera (most of it wasn’t his own this time, so that’s an improvement). He sighed in relief, knowing that, as the newest Mechanism, Tim’s file would be right on top. As he grabbed the file in question though, he noticed something odd. The file itself, along with much of the interior of the cabinet, was covered in an inky black substance that seemed to be vibrating. As Jonny pulled the file out, some of the mysterious substance came with and he could now see that it was, at the same time furry and almost oozing. He prodded at the glob with his gun, and it emitted a questioning meow. Instinct took over and Jonny promptly shot the thing, starling the other creatures in the cabinet into scattering across the lab. As they did, Jonny noticed that while the top of them was distinctly cat-like, the bottom had eight tentacles rather than four legs and a tail. Once the last of them had left his sight, Jonny paused for a second to survey the room. 

“What. The. Fuck. Was. That?” He annunciated carefully, asking a question to someone no longer there. Whatever. The creatures were gone now and Jonny could get the fuck out of this place. This trip had been nearly pointless anyway and a waste of time for where he had to go to complete it. Maybe he could kill Tim in retribution. A smirk had already returned to his face as he left the lab.

This had not been as good of an idea as Jonny has first thought. Tim had guessed that Jonny would come after him in a rather violent mood upon his return, so he had asked Brian to assist him in calming Jonny down. Brain, one hundred percent done with Jonny’s bullshit today, agreed. One flip of the switch to EJM, three rolls of tape, and twenty minutes later; Jonny D’ Ville found himself stuck to the wall about five feet above the ground in some weird approximation of a hanged man. Fucker. He would definitely get Brian back for this one someday, and he already had a perfect idea to exact some much-needed revenge.

While Jonny was busy (once again) planning revenge against a crew member for perceived slights, Ivy Alexandria was on the ground below him, preparing the solution. She worked to the sound of Jonny’s quiet revenge plotting and the sound of Nastya’s violin wafting through the vents. However, as she was finishing bottling the solution, something odd happened. Amongst the normal noises of cohabitation and life aboard the Aurora, a weird banging noise overlapped with the subtle sound of suckers being removed and put back in place. Odd. She turned to Jonny and asked, “Did you let something escape from the Lab?” He looked at her, puzzled. 

“No, of course not. What do you take me for?” he nearly snarled at her. Ivy sighed and gestured for him to listen. The expression on his face changed to one that was on guard, as though he was preparing for an attack.

Ivy continued, “Based on your body language, there is a 90% chance that you were lying to me. What escaped from the lab?” Jonny rolled his eyes at her. “I found some weird half-octopus, half-cat lookin’ fuckers in the file cabinet but I shot one and they all scattered. None of them got past me, and there is only no other way out that they could have gone. Honestly, I can’t believe that you would put so little faith in your captain- “

“First Mate” interjects Ivy. He glares at her. 

“Nothing is or has gotten out of that lab.”, Jonny continues, “Honestly, you and your statistics can kiss my- “

It was at this moment that the octokittens truly made their first appearance to the crew of the Aurora, as two of them dropped from the air vent, one onto the floor of the room and the other onto Jonny’s exposed arm. 

“Fascinating,” Ivy said as she approached the blob on the floor. As she got closer, it looked at her and let out a confused murp. She held out her hand to the creature on the floor. It looked at her warily and then cautiously moved a bit closer to begin to rub its head against the offered hand. Ivy then scooped the whole thing up into her arms to properly pet it. This is despite what seemed to be Jonny’s protests in the background, but she wasn’t really listening. Her attention was on the rather adorable creature that was slowly turning gooey and purring in her lap. 

Jonny, in fact, was not protesting Ivy’s sudden affection towards the creature as he currently had bigger fish to fry. Namely, the octokitten that had dropped from the ceiling had the munchies and had decided to rectify this by eating Jonny’s arm. The noises that Ivy had first perceived as protests were not directed at her and were, in fact, closer to screeching and swearing at the damn cat to get off of him! This went about as well as you’d expect. While Jonny was trying to get the little (was it growing?) leech off of him, a second one dropped from the vents and began to nibble at his neck. The newest of Jonny’s little bullies only caused the man himself to raise the volume and frequency of his swears. This is what finally caught Ivy’s attention, though it only earned him a flat stare.

“I think that they are hungry.” Stated Ivy, still petting the purring thing in her lap.

“Oh gee, what gave you that brilliant idea?” Jonny asked, his words soaked in sarcasm. This failed to get a reaction out of Ivy, as she currently was preoccupied with the several additional creatures that had entered the room. Jonny reacts to being ignored the same way he does with almost everything else. With gunfire and explosions, of course. However, when he had been taped up, someone had also removed his pistol from its usual resting place. This, combined with the fact that he really couldn’t move his arms right now, meant that he couldn’t resort to violence to solve his problems right now, so he settled for the next best thing.

Jonny sighed dramatically, “You would really choose that fleaball over me, your beloved captain.” He had clearly forgotten who he was trying to either annoy to the point where they would take him down to kill him or guilt into letting him down because Ivy wasn’t going to buy it. Instead, she walked up to him with the thing still in her arms (and several others following her) and held it up to his face. Jonny immediately reacted, screeching, “Get that dammed thing away from me!”

Ivy, feigning innocence, replied, “You mean this harmless thing?” And dropped the creature onto Jonny, its suckers attaching to his chest. Jonny is hissing, swearing, and yelling up a storm and at this point, it hardly even sounds like words. Ivy, pointedly ignoring Jonny’s voracious protests, has picked up a new being from off the floor and was now threatening him with this one. This is the scene that greets Gunpowder Tim when he walks into the room. 

Gunpowder Tim was having a really good day. Even though it started off with a sadistic asshole shooting up his room, he also got revenge on said sadistic asshole. To make it even better, Jonny was out of Tim’s hair for at least the rest of the day. Tim used this quiet to his advantage to go and clean his guns again. It just felt like it had been too long, and with the primary disrupter of most everyday activities out of commission, what better time than now? He had been cleaning for what felt like several hours when he started to hear a weird noise coming from the vents and muted talking from where Jonny and Ivy were several rooms down. Tim might not have been around for long, but even still he was sure of two things in this situation. 

1\. He knew the sound of Nastya in the vents like he knew the singing crack of a gun. That was not Nastya in the vents.  
2\. There were many unspeakable things in Doc Carmilla’s Lab. With Jonny having just been in there, it was quite likely that something had escaped. 

At this point, the was no need for alarm and if something did go wrong, he would know about fairly quickly. Tim elected to finish reassembling the pistol he was working on and then go see what the hell Jonny had done this time.

By the time he had finished his work, Tim could hear loud swearing and yelling from the room down the hall. He sighed and loaded his pistol in preparation for whatever he may find in that room. He did not expect to find a room full of odd half-kitten, half-octopus creatures, some of which were following Ivy around and a few others that were eating Jonny. Tim laughed, “Having fun with those octokittens there Jonny?” Jonny just flipped him off. 

Ivy looked at him quizzically, “Octokittens?”, she asked. Tim shrugged, “Might as well give them a name. I heard them in the vents by the armory as well, meaning that they are probably just about everywhere on the ship by now. Nastya and the Aurora would have noticed by now, and since they haven’t done anything, I guess that they are okay with them being here.” Tim holds out his arms for one and Ivy begins to transfer her octokitten to his arms as he continues, “Besides, they don’t seem to be causing any harm.”

This is when Jonny decides that he is done being ignored again. “Pardon my interruption but, not causing any harm?!” He is absolutely livid as he says this, blood dripping from his arm, neck, stomach. Tim shrugs again, octokitten in his arms, “They are probably just hungry.” A smirk comes over his face at that moment and Tim continues, “Actually, I think that we should leave you there for them to feast on for a little bit. Karma is a bitch, eh Jonny?”

Oh, that was it.

Jonny surged forward again, attempting to get out of his binds. This time, he is able to get his uninjured arm free and Ivy just barely has enough time before Jonny lunges down to Tim and they start wrestling on the floor, complete with screaming, swearing, and blood everywhere. 

The rest of the crew slowly flitters in as this spectacle continues. First Brian (back on MJE) and the Toy Soldier, both quiet as they skirt around the conflict. Brian has an octokitten on his head and the Toy Soldier was carrying two in its arms with an even bigger smile than usual on its face. Nastya followed not long after, dragging the carcass of some weird giant deer thing that they had found the last time they were planetside. Based on the chew marks, several octokittens had already been fed with the beast, and there was still plenty more for the rest. She dropped it into the far corner, and the octokittens helped themselves. Nastya was unimpressed with the childish display, but one other person was even more so. Ashes O’ Reilly walked in, took one look at the situation, and then promptly shot them both dead. They then began to drag the bodies out of the room and that was the end of that. The rest of the crew dispersed soon after. 

No one had noticed at first that in all the chaos, that Tim’s mechanism file had gone missing. The unspoken agreement was that an octokitten had eaten it, which was fine. Ivy had already memorized and securely copied all the necessary information that they might need in the future, so the file was worthless anyway. Everyone forgot about the lost file after a while. The octokittens had, at this point, become a fact of daily life aboard the Aurora (though Jonny was still not a fan). This peace (or as close as one can get on a ship full of immortal space pirates) continued for some time. This was until a Stowaway had appeared on the bridge. This was odd for many reasons, not the least of which being most Stowaways rarely left the deepest parts of the ship. As the Stowaway got closer, the crew could see that they were wearing a pin, announcing their pronouns as she/her. She also appeared to be carrying a file. Tim’s file, lightly stained with blood and octokitten goop. The Stowaway smiled brilliantly and proclaimed, “I have just made the most fascinating scientific discovery!” Based on the mechanical wings on her back, and the file in her hand, it wasn’t too hard to guess what she discovered.

**Author's Note:**

> I am very sorry for projecting my need for a Raphaella backstory in here (not, I love her)


End file.
